Da Coventry Patmore a Jonatha Brooke 18591993 Julia Margaret Camerons photograph The Angel in the House The Angel in the House was a domestic woman a woman ID: 245303
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Slide1
The Angel in the House
Da Coventry
Patmore
a
Jonatha
Brooke
(1859-1993)Slide2
Julia Margaret Cameron’s
photograph
“The Angel in the House”Slide3
“The Angel in the House
was
a domestic
woman, a woman
who had no existence outside of the context of her home and whose sole window on the world is her husband.”Elaine Hartnell, “Nothing but Sweet and Womanly: A Hagiography of Patmore’s Angel”, in Victorian Poetry 34.4 (1996): 457-476Slide4
Betty Friedan
,
The Feminine
Mystique (1963).Barbara Welter, The Cult of True Womanhood (1966).“When masculinty and femininity are constructed to generate such rigid and narrow gender roles, it contributes to a culture of violence against women. People with more resources are more likely to be abusive towards those
without
resources
”
Hattery
and Smith,
The Social Dynamics
of
Family
Violence
, (2012).
Simone de
Beouvoir
,
Le
deuxiéme
sexe
(1949).
Michel Foucault,
Histoire
de la
Sexualité
(1976).
Judith
Butler
,
Gender
Trouble
(1990);
Undoing
Gender
(2004).Slide5
“True
Womanhood
”
PIETY
PURITYSUBMISSIONDOMESTICITYSlide6Slide7
Coventry
PatmoreSlide8
Works
by
Coventry Patmore
Poetry
Poems (1844)The Angel in the House (1854)The Espousals (1856)Faithful for Ever (1860)The Victories of Love, (1862)The Unknown Eros and other Odes (1877)EssaysPrinciple in Art (1879)Religio Poetae (1893)The Rod, the Root, and the Flower (1895)Courage in Politics, and Other Essays (1885-1896)Slide9
Emily Augusta
AndrewsSlide10
The Angel in the House
Four
Parts
The Angel in the House (1854)The Espousals (1856)Faithful Forever (1860)The Victories of Love (1862)Slide11
Man
must
be
pleased; but him to pleaseIs woman's pleasure; down the gulfOf his condoled necessitiesShe casts her best, she flings herself.How often flings for nought! and yokesHer heart to an
icicle
or
whim
,
Whose
each
impatient
word
provokes
Another
,
not
from
her
,
but
him
;
While
she
,
too
gentle
even
to
force
His
penitence
by
kind
replies
,
Waits
by
,
expecting
his
remorse
,
With
pardon
in
her
pitying
eyes
.Slide12
And
if
he
once,
by shame oppress’d,A comfortable word confers,She leans and weeps against his breast,And seems to think the sin was hers;Or any eye to see her charms,At any time, she’s still
his
wife
,
Dearly
devoted
to
his
arms
,
She
loves
with
love
that
cannot
tire
;
And
when
, ah
woe
,
she
loves
alone,
Through
passionate
duty love
springs
higher
,
As
grass
grows
taller
round a
stone
.Slide13
His
merits
in her
presence grow,to match the promise in her eyes,and round her happy footsteps blowthe authentic airs of Paradise.Slide14
“
This
centrality
of the male narrator may be construed as simply keeping in with the gender relationship obtaining during the Victorian era (461).” Elaine Hartnell, “Nothing but Sweet and Womanly: A Hagiography of Patmore’s Angel”, (1996). “Women have been associated in a stereotypical way
with
both
good
and
evil
. As
an
angel
in the house, woman
has
been
credited
with
natural
goodness
,
an
innate
allegiance
to
a
law
of
kindness
.
But
this
same
description
extals
her
as
infantile,
weak
and
mindless
. A creature in
costant
need
of
a male supervision and
protection
.
Undertones
of
sadism
run
throughout
Coventry
Patmore
’s
hymn
to
the
angel
who
is
in reality a
prisoner
in the house
she
graces
(59)”.
Nel
Noddings
,
Women and
Evil
, (1984).Slide15
“The Angel in the House
is
a victorinisation
of
one of the major abstractions of courtly lyric and romance (Honour)” (140). “Honoria is for Felix (the felix wooer) what Beatrice is for Dante, but a Beatrice that finally marries him , the Queen of immaculate, clearly unadulterous espousals. A transformation has
occurred
: the
mistress
is
also
the
wife
”(145).
Maurice
Montabrut
, “
Courtly
Manners
in a
Victorian
Home:
Patmore
’s
The Angel in the House
” (1994)Slide16
“And
while I
was
writing this review, I discovered that if I were going to reviewbooks I should need to do battle with a certain phantom. And the phantom was a woman, and when I came to know her better
I
called
her
after
the
heroine
of
a
famous
poem
, The Angel in the House.
It
was
she
who
used
to
come
between
me and
my
paper
when
I
was
writing
reviews
.
It
was
she
who
bothered
me and
wasted
my
time
and so
tormented
me
that
at last I
killed
her
.
You
who
come
of
a
younger
and
happier
generation
may
not
have
heard
of
her--you
may
not
know
what
I
mean
by
the Angel in the House. I
will
describe
her
as
shortly
as
I can.
She
was
intensely
sympathetic
.
She
was
immensely
charming
.
She
was
utterly
unselfish
.
She
excelled
in the
difficult
arts
of
family life.
She
sacrificed
herself
daily
.
If
there
was
chicken
,
she
took
the
leg
;
if
there
was
a
draught
she
sat
in
it--in
short
she
was
so
constituted
that
she
never
had
a mind or a
wish
of
her
own
,
but
preferred
to
sympathize
always
with
the
minds
and
wishes
of
others
.
Above
all--I
need
not
say
it---she
was
pure.
Her
purity
was
supposed
to
be
her
chief
beauty--her
blushes
,
her
great
grace
. In
those
days--the
last
of
Queen
Victoria--every
house
had
its
Angel. And
when
I
came
to
write
I
encountered
her
with
the
very
first
words
. The
shadow
of
her
wings
fell
on
my
page
; I
heard
the
rustling
of
her
skirts
in the
room
. Slide17
Directly
, that
is to say, I took my pen in my hand to review that novel by a famous man, she slipped behind me and whispered: "My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book
that
has
been
written
by
a man. Be
sympathetic
;
be
tender;
flatter
;
deceive
;
use
all
the
arts
and
wiles
of
our
sex.
Never
let
anybody
guess
that
you
have
a mind
of
your
own
.
Above
all--I
need
not
say
it---she
was
pure.
Her
purity
was
supposed
to
be
her
chief
beauty--her
blushes
,
her
great
grace
. In
those
days--the
last
of
Queen
Victoria--every
house
had
its
Angel. And
when
I
came
to
write
I
encountered
her
with
the
very
first
words
. The
shadow
of
her
wings
fell
on
my
page
; I
heard
the
rustling
of
her
skirts
in the
room
.
Directly
,
that
is
to
say
, I
took
my
pen
in
my
hand
to
review
that
novel
by
a
famous
man,
she
slipped
behind
me and
whispered
: "
My
dear
,
you
are a
young
woman.
You
are
writing
about
a book
that
has
been
written
by
a man. Be
sympathetic
;
be
tender;
flatter
;
deceive
;
use
all
the
arts
and
wiles
of
our
sex.
Never
let
anybody
guess
that
you
have
a mind
of
your
own
.
Above
all
,
be
pure." And
she
made
as
if
to
guide
my
pen
. I
now
record the
one
act
for
which
I take some
credit
to
myself
,
though
the
credit
rightly
belongs
to
some
excellent
ancestors
of
mine
who
left
me a
certain
sum
of
money--shall
we
say
five
hundred
pounds
a
year
?--so
that
it
was
not
necessary
for
me
to
depend
solely
on charm
for
my
living. Slide18
I
turned
upon
her and caught her by the throat. I did my best to kill her. My excuse, if I were to be had up in a court of law, would be that I acted in self-defence. Had I
not
killed
her
she
would
have
killed
me.
She
would
have
plucked
the
heart
out
of
my
writing
.
For
,
as
I
found
,
directly
I put
pen
to
paper
,
you
cannot
review
even
a
novel
without
having
a mind
of
your
own
,
without
expressing
what
you
think
to
be
the
truth
about
human
relations,
morality
, sex. And
all
these
questions
,
according
to
the Angel
of
the House,
cannot
be
dealt
with
freely
and
openly
by
women;
they
must
charm,
they
must
conciliate,
they
must--to
put
it
bluntly--tell
lies
if
they
are
to
succeed
.
Thus
,
whenever
I
felt
the
shadow
of
her
wing
or the
radiance
of
her
halo
upon
my
page
, I
took
up the
inkpot
and
flung
it
at
her
.
She
died
hard.
Her
fictitious
nature
was
of
great
assistance
to
her
.
It
is
far
harder
to
kill
a
phantom
than
a reality.
She
was
always
creeping
back
when
I
thought
I
had
despatched
her
.
Though
I
flatter
myself
that
I
killed
her
in the end, the
struggle
was
severe;
it
took
much
time
that
had
better
have
been
spent
upon
learning
Greek
grammar
; or in roaming the world in
search
of
adventures
.
But
it
was
a
real
experience
;
it
was
an
experience
that
was
bound
to
befall
all
women
writers
at
that
time
.
Killing
the Angel in the House
was
part
of
the
occupation
of
a woman
writer
.”
Virginia Woolf,
Professions
for
Women
(1942).Slide19
“
For
many
years
I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia-and beyond. During about the third year of this trouble I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases
, the best
known
in the
country
.
This
wise
man put me
to
bed
and
applied
the
rest
cure,
to
which
a
still
good
physique
responded
so
promptly
that
he
concluded
that
there
was
nothing
much
the
matter
with
me, and sent me home
with
solemn
advice
to
`live
as
domestic
a life
as
possible
,’
to
`
have
but
two
hours
’
intelligent
life a
day
,’ and `
never
to
touch
pen
,
brush
or
pencil
again
’
as
long
as
I
lived
.
This
was
in 1887. I
went
home and
obeyed
those
directions
for
some
three
months
, and
came
so
near
the
border
line
of
utter
mental
ruin
that
I
could
see
over
”.
Charlotte
Perkins
Gilman
,
The Yellow
Wall
Paper
and
Other
Stories
(1892)Slide20
American
Feminist
folk duo
The Story
publishes the album The Angel in the House in 1993